The following relates generally to wireless communication, and more specifically to multi-user multiple-input-multiple-output (MU-MIMO) scheduling.
Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems can be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). A wireless network, for example a wireless local area network (WLAN), can include an access point (AP) that may communicate with one or more stations (STAs) or mobile devices. The AP may be coupled to a network, such as the Internet, and enable a mobile device to communicate via the network (or communicate with other devices coupled to the access point). A wireless device may communicate with a network device bi-directionally. For example, in a WLAN, an STA may communicate with an associated AP via downlink (DL) and uplink (UL). The DL (or forward link) refers to the communication link from the AP to the STA, and the UL (or reverse link) refers to the communication link from the STA to the AP.
An AP may communicate with more than one STA simultaneously using an MU-MIMO transmission. The AP may send an MU-MIMO transmission to a group of STAs (e.g., a transmission set) that are assigned the same group identifier (ID). However, some STAs in a transmission set can have little or no traffic to receive at a particular time when an MU-MIMO transmission is scheduled and may have transmission characteristics substantially different from other STAs in the multi user (MU) group. Such a disparity in traffic to be received and transmission characteristic between STAs in an MU group decreases wireless communication system efficiency and throughput.